The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Stokesia plant, botanically known as Stokesia laevis and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Synstokhar’.
The new Stokesia plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Enkhuizen, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new hardy and easy to produce Stokesia plants with a freely branching habit, relatively short flowering stems and numerous large inflorescences.
The new Stokesia plant originated from an open-pollination in August, 2007 in Enkhuizen, The Netherlands of a proprietary selection of Stokesia laevis identified as code number MM0959, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Stokesia laevis as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Stokesia plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled nursery environment in Enkhuizen, The Netherlands in 2008.
Asexual reproduction of the new Stokesia plant by vegetative basal cuttings was first conducted in Enkhuizen, The Netherlands in March, 2009. Asexual reproduction by cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Stokesia plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.